£20m cancer research centre at Christie Hospital gets go-ahead

Controversial plans for a £20m cancer research centre have been approved by planning bosses. Work to create an international research facility at the Christie Hospital in Withington will now start within months. Victorian houses will be demolished to make way for a three-storey Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC). It will include ground-level parking spaces for 419 cars.

Controversial plans for a £20m cancer research centre have been approved by planning bosses.

Work to create an international research facility at the Christie Hospital in Withington will now start within months. Victorian houses will be demolished to make way for a three-storey Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC). It will include ground-level parking spaces for 419 cars.

The plans were approved on the condition the hospital creates a residents-only parking scheme for neighbours after fears the extra staff would make parking problems even worse.

The hospital had already scrapped plans for a 750-space car park following opposition from neighbours. And it agreed to a council request to produce a ‘green travel plan’ to encourage staff to use public transport.

The main research building – between Wilmslow Road and Cotton Lane – will also be placed further back from Withington Green after objections from residents. The research centre will be run by Manchester University and Cancer Research UK in partnership, and aims to put the city at the forefront of research into the disease.

Director Professor Nic Jones said: "We are delighted that our revised planning application for the MCRC research facility has now been approved, as it marks an important new phase in cancer research in Manchester.

"The MCRC can now continue to expand and deliver research that has life-changing potential for cancer patients."

But campaigners say the plans still go too far, by turning the historic Withington Green into part of the hospital’s entrance area.

They want the area left alone as a separate civic space – and plan to continue their campaign by getting it listed as an official village green, protected from development.

Anthony Whitehead from Withington Civic Society said: "We support the Christie but not aspects of this application. The Green is an important and valued civic space with a recorded history of 200 years.

"The offer of a green space within the development is not acceptable – we want a green with a capital ‘G’ and the fight for Withington Green will go on."